23 April 2010

We left this news item alone at the time, because we really don't want to give anybody's PR people a psychiatric condition, but now it's just too perfect. We're sorry, we can't help it. The stars rarely align like this. This assuming you believe in The Beerbaum Conspiracy. Now we don't know if it's true and we certainly don't jump on the first conspiracy theory we hear, but we do know it's at least possible, and that alone is funny enough on its face for us to have a go. Very sad if true, but also deserving of ridicule regardless. We like to sit back and see just what bumbling Equestrian Twit behaviour comes to the surface (it always does) before coming to any conclusions, but we do know that no rider could possibly get that done if the will wasn't there at the top.

The FEI president received an interesting award in Bochum, Germany last month, which just happens to be right around the corner from Riesenbeck. We're guessing the good people of Der Steiger are entirely oblivious to the FEI Statutes. And lots of other stuff.

The Steiger Award is named after "Der Steiger" (The Miner) and symbolizes traits that are associated with miners in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany—straightforward, open, honest, fair and tolerant. It also stands for reliability, loyalty and cooperation in good times and in bad. The award is given annually to personalities who are recognized for their work in fields of music, sports, media, environment and film.

The Person Responsible for the laudation of HRH was none other than Ludger Beerbaum. Yes, really.

The given reason for this award was: "Princess Haya of Jordan is not only an exceptionally gifted sportswoman, but she also fights with all her dedication for fairness in sport in her function as President of the World Equestrian Federation." As Ludger Beerbaum himself wrote on his website (www.ludger-beerbaum.de), he described Princess Haya in his laudation as "a self-confident young woman full of willpower, who stands up for all the interests of her riding colleagues even after the end of her active riding career. She has opened the door for the Arabian world!" (Ed: Yes, we can see some of that "Arabian" influence in a certain possible Geneva scenario). Princess Haya was quite happy about the fact that Ludger Beerbaum handed over the award to her: "He is a hero!"